fishingandforagingwalesfishingandforagingwaleshttps://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/blogBack to the land - Back to the sea - Back to the woodland]]>Matt Powellhttps://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/single-post/2019/02/20/Back-to-the-land-Back-to-the-sea-Back-to-the-woodland-foraging-courses-wales-ukhttps://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/single-post/2019/02/20/Back-to-the-land-Back-to-the-sea-Back-to-the-woodland-foraging-courses-wales-ukWed, 20 Feb 2019 14:58:41 +0000

New for 2019 – New foraging and food days out.

After listening to valuable feedback from guests over 2018, and after some careful planning over the winter, I’m pleased to announce that Fishing and foraging Wales is introducing exciting new single shorter element-based foraging and food experiences this year.

I’ve decided to extend the packages available to give people a bit more choice over how they’d like to experience foraging and at the same time, to hopefully make some of the experiences more accessible to a wider range of people.

These new, more focussed and shorter duration packages are aimed at people wanting an introduction to the delights of foraging, but, as always, my desire is to help people to reconnect with the world around us and to germinate a lifelong passion for foraging in the future.

The shorter duration of these new packages makes them ideal for families, a great opportunity to introduce young people to our rich food heritage and to a way of life that is fast disappearing from the modern world.

The three new short duration packages are “Back to the land” “Back to the sea” And “Back to the woodland”. You can find all three available from my online store if you’d like to book Here’s a short description of each package to whet your appetites

Option 1 - “Back to the land” - A day of foraging on the land – Hedgerows and plants – April to June. A three or four-course dinner, with the fields and hedgerows being the inspiration.

Option 2 – “Back to the sea” - A day of foraging on the shoreline – Seaweeds and maritime plants – April to November. A three or four-course dinner, with the foreshore and estuary being the inspiration.

Option 3 “Back to the woodland” - A day of woodland foraging for Fungi – June to November.

A three or four-course dinner, with the woodland being the inspiration.

All 3 packages share the same ethos as my existing longer foraging and food experiences, namely an emphasis on a “sense of place” for our food origins, the wonders of the beautiful Pembrokeshire outdoors and the transformation of humble ingredients into a gastronomic delight for the participants.

The 3 new packages allow more focus on a specific type of foraging environment, allowing a bit more time for in-depth explanation and knowledge transfer that is available over the existing packages.

More details of these and all my other packages are available via my online store. Booking is available directly from there, or if you’d like more of chat about what’s available, or would like me to tailor something specific to your requirements, please do get in touch. Most of my packages can be adapted for different needs, for example, I can provide bespoke packages aimed any of the following.

Local accommodation providers wishing to offer packages to your clients - we can bring the experience to you.Schools and Further education establishmentsLarger Groups of adults.Corporate Rewards and Teambuilding

Thanks for taking the time to read this information.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Any feedback is of course very welcome.

I closed my old website down a little while ago now, and I had saved all my previous blog posts with the idea of adding them to my latest website for more content and a nostalgic look at times past.

I will be adding these blog posts thorughout the next few weeks.

Its nice for me to look back on how far I have actually come since I started Fishng and foraging Wales almost seven years ago now.

The Story So Far – July 2013

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Welsh Bass Guide

The story so far on the Welsh coast this season has been a good one, the sea temperature is nearly hitting 18 Celsius and I am landing fish on a daily basis and so are my clients.

We have landed some truly awesome fish from 3lb up to 8lb.

Sport like this in this day and age with commercial pressure and people off the shore not taking a sensible amount of fish is not to be sniffed at.

Long hours and complete dedication are what is needed and still the fish will not always come easy.

“Time on the Water and technique are everything”

The end of June ended on a high and conditions were perfect.

The weather has been pretty good and it it is warming the water to where it should be, but some bigger swell, surf and some nice onshore blows would be great now to give the bigger bass a bit of confidence to start feeding voraciously again.

August, September and October look set to be electric if the conditions are perfect. I am relishing the fact that this season could get even better.

Although the calm weather has given me time to keep chasing some decent sized wrasse during the day in such bright conditions.

All the fish I have landed since June have been landed on the Tulala Glissando 72 and I have not blanked yet on this rod.

I love the Tulala rod, it is feather weight but still holds some power and bigger bass up to 7 and 1/2lb and wrasse from 2lb up to 4lb have been landed on this fine piece of equipment.

This rod brings great pleasure when fighting bass and wrasse around difficult ground.

The rod is absolutely perfect for soft plastic work and my work with the chaps from Tulala continues.

I will leave this post for now and wish everyone good fishing.

Thanks for reading.

Email - matt@fishingandforagingwales.co.uk

Telephone - 07515380169

]]>A very late blogpost - Looking back at the main season 2018]]>Matt Powellhttps://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/single-post/2018/11/13/fishing-and-foraging-wales-A-very-late-blogpost---Looking-back-at-the-main-season-2018https://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/single-post/2018/11/13/fishing-and-foraging-wales-A-very-late-blogpost---Looking-back-at-the-main-season-2018Sat, 24 Nov 2018 11:00:03 +0000

Its sundown on another wonderful main season at Fishing and foraging Wales.

This year has been really busy and has absolutely flown by and theres not been a great deal of time for me to get a blog post done over the recent months.

The truth is that Fishing and foraging Wales has really gone from strength to strength over the last few years, but this year has been exceptional.

Fishing and foraging Wales is getting to a stage now where all the hardwork has started to pay off, I feel I am getting to a position where only a few years ago I could of only dreamed of.

I must also take this oppurtunity to thank everyone thats been involved with me this year for all their help and support.

The summer of 2018 saw us in the U.K having some of the best weather throughout for many years.

The weather was so settled that instead of being out chasing bass I took the oppurtunity to get underneath the water with my snorkelling kit.

This has been a real oppurtunity for me to learn more about my local areas, but it has also given me the gift of inspiration for my food creations moving forward.

Above - Gathering my own spider crabs by hand has been wonderful through the early summer.

The most exciting thing is though that I am getting to a stage where I feel happy with the dishes I am serving on the foraging and food days out.

In the peak of the season I was creating a twelve course dinner and this will now be more of my main focus moving forward.

This is not the plateau I want to finish at though, theres more to come from me to strive towards and to achieve. Theres plenty to be refined and I need to focus more to produce and to eloborate more and more my dream of continuing to create something not only for myself and my guests but to put the absolute emulation of "Wales on a plate" into full view.

I am at the moment writing down a basis for each ingredient I pick and to utilise them in the best way I can, whether that ingredient picked is a Dandelion or the finest penny bun, trumpet of the dead or a piece of kelp.

How can I utilise these wonderful components and turn them into something even more sublime on their own or of course paired with other ingredients too.

The last five years have in my eyes been building blocks to moving forward with the food experience.

Above - A guest with A perfect Penny bun mushroom (Porcini or Cep).

Above - Trumpets of the dead, a wonderful name for a wonderful fungi.

The fungi this season has been unreal, after last years bad crops it was a real pleasure to be out this year. There has been so much fungi about it was like living in a dream.

Swathes of the best edible fungi have carpetted the woodland floors with horn of plenty, penny buns and charcoal burners being my mainstay.

Above - Penny bun, beech, hazelnut and rowan berries. A simple appetizer with the late summer and autumn in mind and in full culinary expressional glory. Its a real pleasure to be able to be able to utilise such amazing finds and emulate them on a plate.

This year has seen me taking small steps to take something as simple as a humble limpet to a whole new level.

Theres been quite a few comments aimed at me on social media about my food dishes being pretentiuos. I think the word pretentious in this case is being thrown at me without anyone actually understanding the meaning of the word and what it is I am actually doing here?

What I am trying to do is to take the best local ingredients and turn them into something sublime. I am not pretending to be anything else with my food creations, it is what it is.

"An extension and a gesture of the life I live and the environment in which I live in and work in."

The only ingredients I now use from outside Pembrokeshire or Wales is my black pepper, sugar and sometimes my scallops are comimgfrom Scotland when I use them.

Above - "Lobster and the shoreline" - The main course on the foraging and food experience days out.

Above - "Stack rocks" An egg filled with Gorseflower custard with Birch and ash meringue. A dessert that is based on the wonderful sea faring birds that nest on the cliffs of Pembrokeshire through late spring and early summer.

Above - "A gift from the woodland" - Acorn ice cream, biodynamic malted grain "soil", porcini and chocolate truffle. This is one of three desserts on the foraging and food experience in the late summer and autumn.

It has also been a real push for me to get lots of photos as I work alone and plating a 12 course dinner for up to six people at a time can sometimes be a real push. I had hardly any chance to get the DSLR camera out this year, so I found myself using my mobile phone camera a lot of the time, so many apologies if the photos I post over the next few weeks and months are not up to scratch.

I have lots of projects to work on in 2019 so I will only be taking a limited number of bass fishing clients out during the season.

So early booking is essential for that side of the business. I also want to try and enjoy my bass lure angling a lot more as a hobby again, this will also allow me to focus on the foraging and food days moving forward and onto the next level.

Well it was a slow start for me at the beginning of the season, but things are really coming good now on the bass fishing front.

Early May saw warmer days but very cold nights which has affected everything across the board. The bass metabolism really starts to kick in at around 12oc and the water was slow to come to this much needed temperature.

Cold nights and days have also stalled the plant growth, and in turn of course the foraging season. The elderflower has been a bit late here, which I normally use as a litmus for the better numbers of bass to come along. The swallows were also very late this year and nesting birds are also very late too. Things are warming up nicely now though with the high early summer temperatures hitting the highs.

Myself and my clients have been hooking into a good stamp of fish and this is very pleasing for me. It also keeps people wanting to return and my hard work over the years is now paying me back. This coastline is never easy and surf, swell, time of tide and wind play a huge part in the where and when to try and be in the right place at the right time.

Long hours are essential in keeping up with catch rates and success, there are no short cuts. This is not a lazy mans sport. Up before first light, and away with the birds, sleeping during daylight hours and out for sundown or in the dead of night.

We can walk many miles over a few days of bass lure fishing here on this absolutely magnificent coastline.

Bass in the 60cm to 70cm range are plentiful at the moment. long may this be the case.

Soft plastic lures have been doing the damage. I love fishing soft plastic lures completley weightless, and I have always been a big believer in "less is more". Shallow divers and surface lures have been taking smaller fish for me.

The main sandeel hatches will soon be taking place here and this is a wonderful time to come and join me.

Do not forget to sign up for my blog post and mailing list here on this page.

If you do there is a discount offer running to the end of June on my guided fishing days out. I already have bookings into Novmber so do not miss out on a wonderful oppurtunity and experience.

Dishes to be served are subject to change due to availability of ingredients.

Please inform us way ahead of any food preferences and dislikes or any food allergies.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend. Thanks for reading.

Note* With the new laws on Data protection I must inform you if you wish to unsubscribe from my updates then please do. I will never share anyones email with any third parties anyway as this is not the nature of our small business.

This offer has been a long time coming and something I have wanted to run for a while it’s just been a case of finding the time and the right moment.

To celebrate the recent re-branding of the business and the release of the new website and logo I am offering a 10% discount on bass fishing bookings made before the end of June.

The summer months are the best times to come and join me here on the wild Pembrokeshire coast. This is when the sand eels hatch in big numbers, bass come in close to feed on crabs and other crustaceans and will be chasing other bait fish.

All you have to do is sign up to my emailing list which can be found on my blog here https://www.welshbassguide.co.uk/blog .Sign up with your email on the right and press "Subscribe Now"

The discount will apply to anyone signing up to the list and it can be used for two or more consecutive days only, and can also only be used for groups of up to four people. Provided you confirm your booking before end June then the discounted days can be at any time this season, subject to availability.

When you contact me to book provided I already have your details captured on the mailing list I will apply your discount.

This promotion will be running from today the 13th of May 2018 and up until the 30th of June 2018.

Please note that bookings will be on a first come first served basis. The weekends and best tides are likely to fill up fast, so don’t delay!

If you are already on my mailing list then this offer already applies. If you do join the mailing list and cannot make it this year then there will also be more promotions for both bass fishing, foraging and food days coming soon.

Thanks for reading and I hope you will take the amazing opportunity to take up this generous offer.

I have had numerous successful restaurnt pop ups in various locations and also the foraging and food days have been busy too.

The early spring has been a pretty cold one and as every year I always look forward to the arrival of the best edible fungi available to us the Morel (Morchella esculenta - - Morchella deliciosa)

I was a little worried this year that I wouldn't find any morels because of the cold weather, but there have actually been a few about. I had repeat clients from L.A this year, and it was great to get them onto some wonderful springtime fungi hunting.

Last year the morels were very hard to come by but this year when I have had time to look I have found quite a few.

If you do want to join me next year to get out to find these most incredible fungi then feel free to book in when you can.

The foraging and food bookings have as always been a huge success and its a real pleasure to get out at this time of year, when the sun is out then foraging is a real delight. Walking down quiet country lanes and through the fields. The sound of the light breeze, the birds in full song. It doesn't get much better than this, connecting back to how it should be and how it was.

Its hard to imagine a better dining experience than learning, gathering and then eating these wonderful creations.

Above - Springtime on a plate - Slow cooked duck egg yolk, morels and hedgerow edibles. The colour and vibrancy of spring being the inspiration for this dish.

Above - Lobster and the shoreline - Pembrokeshire lobster with all the goodness that it lives close to. This dish is one that I am very proud of and I think it is a dish that is probably perfect.

Above - "Stack rocks", Gorse flower custard and ash meringue.

Theres around six to eight courses in all and when your cooking and serving the food its often difficult for me to get lots of photos.

As you can imagine when I turn out these kinds of dishes people are blown away and I feel I am hitting the peaks now as I settle more and more into my surroundings. Still as I have said for a long time there is still so much more I want to produce and to learn about to take the dining experience to yet another level.

As far as bass fishing is concerned I have had no time whatsoever to get out, its even been hard for me to get rolling with my regular blog posts trying to keep up with paperwork is another story.

Theres been no chance to get out bass fishing a lot yet, that isn't a bad thing though as it is only now that the water temperature here is hitting the needed 12oc.

I will be out over the next few days though and as soon as I get the chance to hook my first bass then it will be posted up on here :)

This letter does go out into an email to past clients so I have to say by the new incoming laws that if you wish to unsubscribe then please just drop me an email with the text Remove as the subject and I will remove you from the list.

You can also sign up to the mailing list on the top right hand side of the blog page to stay updated.

Note* I am sure as you can see throughout the website I have had the business logo and I have gone through re-branding recently so if you are signed up and you are on the list, then there will be some speacial offers coming to you over the next few days, so please stay posted.

Leila and Anthony joined me last year whilst on their travels around Wales, they were extremely down to earth and just really lovely people.

So here is the video, please do have a watch and if you are on the social media channels then please like and share it etc. We all worked hard to get this amazing work across.

I was to say the least overwhelmed by what the recipe hunters achieved whilst they were in Wales and what they achieved with me. I really love the video and it gets across my ethics and my beliefs over extremely well?

I hope you enjoy the video and you have all had a lovely Easter as well.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you are looking to join me again this year. Or of course if you are wanting to join me for the first time for either bass lure angling or the wonderful foraging and food experience please don't hesitate.

Spring is quickly moving in, and the weather at the beginning of the month has been very cold and theres obviously been plenty of snow across the U.K.

Let's hope things get better weather wise here on in, the water temperature will soon start to rise and it will be great to see my guests playing and releasing nice bass like this very soon

Early spring is the time for me to get out and start gathering. I love this time of year and theres always plenty going on, even the small things like toads pairing up are lovely to see.

The wild garlic shoots have been up for a while and I started to preserve these wonderful little shoots in the middle of January. "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail" has never been so true a word in my field. When creating and serving food which is so close to the importance of the seasons and mother nature you have absolutely no choice. I have to stay one step ahead, theres no other way.

In the last few days the first of the gorse flowers are starting to arrive.

Gorse flowers are one of the best wild edibles, if of course you know what to do with them.

The humble gorse flower is as important to me as something like vanilla is to the mainstream commercial chef. You can impart that wonderful fresh coconut scent into all manner of things, custards, ice creams, mousses. With a little creativity and imagination then its surprising what you can come up with.

I am also toying with the idea that the coconut flavour and scent could actually go with fish quite well or indeed lamb, especially milk fed lamb. I will keep you posted on these findings in the near future.

Coming to that point "the near future", I have two pop up events coming very soon.

It's really a great privilege to be doing these nights and it gives me a chance to get across a sample of what I am doing to a bigger audience. I can't thank the great people at both venues enough for letting me do this. Spaces are limited and there probably a few gone already. So please get in touch with either myself or either of the venues above if you want to join us.

It's a bit of a bargain really with the both nights being around fifty pounds per head.

Theres not many places you can go these days and eat six or seven courses for that price. You can expect dishes of the standard below.

Again a short blog post but I hope I can tempt you into coming to one of the nights at either venue in the upcoming spring calendar, or if you fancy a real experience here on the Pembrokeshire coast please do get in touch.

There will probably be more collaborations in the pipe line as well throughout the year and definitely more in 2019 so do stay posted.

So with cabin fever well and truly set in and the anticipation of the new season to come I thought it was about time for me to get a fishing blog post up.

I have for while now wanted to share more information about some of the tactics and lures I use out here on the Welsh coast for my bass lure angling.

On this new blog site when I can I will be giving away honest, and I hope engaging information for fellow lure anglers. I hope it will not just work here in Wales but across the United kingdom and hopefully further afield.

So here goes....

Starting at the beginning

Sorry about not smiling in the above photo, but it's always a shock and a very adrenaline fueled time when you hook, play and land big bass on lures.

For hard lure fishing

I prefer to give the sea in my area the time to warm up before I start using hard lures on a more regular basis. I love using the mainstay of the hard lures I use from about the end of April into early May.

I most definitely don't start throwing surface lures in the water until about mid May when the water temperature normally hits 12oc.

For all my lure fishing whether using hard or soft baits, I try and use naturally colored baits.

Matching the hatch is very important to my style and practices, so I try and use patterns of the bait fish that are present in that area, this includes the normal patterns like sand eels, gobies, blennies and rockling, squid and mullet etc, and of course where there are young sea trout and twait shads and common eels I will use appropriate patterns to tempt the bass.

I will write more on the subject of "matching the hatch" in the time to come.

The soft needle technique and similar methods

The soft needle technique by day and by night that I use for all my soft plastic lure fishing for bass was developed for our U.K waters by Keith and Kevin White in Jersey. In all honesty Keith has been an inspiration to me since I started the bass guiding back almost five years ago now. Keith was and is still there if I or any other person has any questions, I can never thank Keith enough for being encouraging and so helpful in my early and formative years.

I remember the days when I would head down to the water with a few bags of Sand eel, eel and bait fish pattern soft plastics and go through many hours of research in the motions of finding out which soft plastics worked best for bass.

Some soft plastic baits and whilst daytime practicing the soft needle technique also actually caught me some quality wrasse in the beginning sometimes with accidental intent. I soon came to love catching bigger wrasse and I still do take clients out to catch this very pleasing and hard fighting fish.

I sometimes find it surprising how things just sometimes click into place and just work and then everything makes sense.

Method - Simplicity and common sense

The best way that I describe this method when I am teaching people on my days out is this.

"The most important tool we have with this technique and with other forms of lure fishing is the water itself."

Take a look at this video below.

The white water that I call the chaos and the type of water that makes my heart skip a beat and gets me extremely excited.

It is so uncomplicated it's unreal. All you need is current and water flow, the rest takes care of itself.

Theres always current and tidal flow, but when we look at structure then this is where the real hot spots can be. These currents and flows of water have been happening in the same places for thousands of years. The push of the sea has shaped our coastlines and our favorite fishing marks.

A quick note on water temperature.

Whilst snorkeling you will notice when you are closer to rock structure theres A huge difference in water temperature. Being close to rock formations you can really feel the warmth, and when moving off to deeper water there is a pretty big and sudden drop in water temperature.

The water quite obviously near the rocks is warmer because the sun heats the exposed rocks up and like being close to a heat source on a cold winters day it feels very comforting indeed.

I have a feeling the bass enjoy this too. I have in evidence also seen good sized bass quietly resting up near the rocks in the middle of the day.

Structure

The next thing I look for is structure. Where there is structure, for example gullies with lots of weed, large pieces of rock, boulders and sizing down to pebbles and also sand bars.

I have broken this section into three parts. I experience different types of structure on my home turf.

Hard structures

Gullies

Gullies are probably the best places to target bass.

I have lost count how many larger fish I have hooked and landed with the soft needle technique in a deep gullies. By fishing a soft plastic along the edge of a gully with weed then your in for a real chance of a good fish. Big fish will not over use their energy chasing bait.

Big fish are opportunistic hunters. They will move in on a tide and they will lay in wait to ambush or they will just pick up dead crabs and other fodder.

Here you will find food or bait like sand eels, gobies, blennies, rockling, crabs and prawns are prolific. All favorite foods of the bass.

Similar to gullies but obviously drop offs do as they are so called they drop off to deeper water. Bass will use the cover of the weed and they will lay in wait at distance for sand eels and other bait fish to pass by.

Storm beaches

Sand banks and holes on storm beaches are deadly for bass. I think out of all the places to catch bass this is my favorite area, lots of people give beaches a miss but you should try it or of course come and join me and learn how to read a beach with me here on the Welsh coast.

Even a small bass will go like the clappers in the undertow when theres a nice bit of surf on.

There are different ways to target bass in the surf, sometimes its nice to have a lure that can cast a long way. It's also great to bounce heavier plastics though the Fiiish black minnow does well for this terrain too.

Over the surf I love to use theXorus Patchinko 2. The Xorus Patchinko 2 is a legendary lure and its a proven lure.

I don't like using surface lures on bright days as I feel they scare the fish. On overcast days and at night time I like to give a gentle walk the dog action and I also like waking them across the water too.

The Xorus asturies has become a bit of a legend in its own right as a lure. I will be doing more work with this lovely looking lure this year. It doesn't cast as far as the patchinko 2 but I really like the subtlety of it.

Soft plastic Lures

Below are a list of lures for you to take into consideration and if you have not tried them then please do they are all proven fish catchers for me and they really do work.

The lunker city slug-go has been a staple of mine now for the last five years. It took me a good while to start hitting fish with these soft lures, but when I did build my confidence with them then it was hard to stop. For about two seasons they were the only soft plastic I would turn too. I would use a selection of 4.5in and 6in size and I would for daytime and low light fishing only use the Arkansas shiner colour. I have landed fish of up to 8 lbs on these excellent lures up to this day. I usually use a 3.5g or a 5g cone head weight for these sizes.

Ifished my soft plastics completely weightless in 2017. No weight and no clip. I caught many good fish on the Do live sticks from the first cast I took a good fish of just under 6lb.

I really love these lures in the electric shrimp colour but I have also done very well with the wakasagi coloured lure as well. I also really like the special edition "goby" colour as well and I had a few nice fish in the night on this lovely lure.

The O.S.P Do live sticks have been a revelation for my fishing over the last season. I have fished the 6in range in this lure. I fished all my soft plastics last year completely weightless.

With the "less is more" approach, I am in the thinking that may have something to do with the stamp of fish they have been taking? The 6in version cast really far for a soft plastic without any weight added at all. I want to size down to the smaller 4.5in next year for the timing of the early sand eel hatches. For more information on this wonderful soft plastic visit O.S.P's website here.

Hawg Wild senkos

The original Hawg wild black and white senkos are legendary. I still have a few packs of the original ones of my own. I am sure the company changed the density of the plastic they were using, that's what I recall somebody telling me anyway?

Please don't quote me on that though. I used to fish these senkos when I first started out bass fishing and before they became famous. I used to get a supply from my good friend Andy Kendrick. If it helps, they can now be found in the United Kingdom here.

Lures I am looking forward to using more in 2018

It's always a tough one when you are running a small business and funds are not always there for splashing out, so you tend to stick to the lures that work, and then when funds allow you can buy some new and interesting gear to try out. Theres some great stuff available these days and these are a few soft plastics I am looking forward to using in 2018.

Albie snax

I got to use the Albie snax lures a little bit last year and I did catch fish on them within the first few casts, in all honesty I haven't caught anything large on them yet. Although I think that will change in the near future. The Albie snax are a lovely looking "squid" style lure though and I am looking forward to working with them a lot more in 2018.

Rais spotter

The Rai's spotter is not a lure I have used yet but I am looking forward to trying these lures out in 2018. The ones in the photo are the 7in version, I am also keen to test out the 5in version too. It's always a tough one when you are running a small business and funds are not always there for splashing out so you tend to stick to the ones that work and then when funds allow you can buy some new and interesting gear.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch to book in for the bass fishing or wrasse fishing season ahead.

I must apologize to all my followers its taken me ten days over the new year period to get a blog post up. So a very happy 2018 to you all.

I have been busy with full time work over Christmas building up the funds and theres just not been enough hours in the day to do much writing. Fishing and foraging Wales continues to grow and its becoming harder to try and keep up with everything.

Its been a mixed winter weather wise here in Wales. We have had some snow on higher ground and its always nice to get out in the cold and have a good walk when I get the chance.

Next week I will be gathering scarlet elf cup fungi and also wild garlic for preserving in readiness for the busy times ahead.

I love hunting for these early edibles. The colour of bright green and the wonderful scarlet colour of the elf cup's is a great sight to see on the now bare winter time woodland floor. I do like the scarlet elf cups. I gently cook them as I do with all my fungi and I really like the texture. The taste almost reminds me of bacon for some strange reason. Mind you I do have a pretty refined palate.

I love to create new dishes at this time of year and I will be busy in my small kitchen trying out new things. As a creative chef it's important I keep trying out new things and to keep writing new ideas down.

"Limpets" will be a new dish added to the early spring dishes for the foraging and food days for the foreseeable future.

They won't be served as a whole "meat", but I have learned to extract the essence of the limpet to make it edible.

In all honesty I don't know how our neolithic ancestors could eat vast amounts of these aquatic gastropods in their whole form.

I know early humans had to eat to survive but these wonderful and fascinating creatures are never going to win anything in the texture or looks awards. I have tried slow cooking limpets at different temperatures and for long periods of time, but theres no way you can get them to go soft.

The best thing to come out of them is a wonderfully rich juice which can be made into something spectacular. The limpet will be just one element of the new appetizer dish with another two tastes added to enhance things.

I have really found working alone over the last few years that a few simple elements executed extremely well is the way to go. I don't have one chef to each guest that sits down to the food experience like a lot of the top places do. The food still has to compete and be up there with the best in the business though and there is only one way to achieve perfection when working on your own. The key is to refine, execute well, be confident in the power of the best ingredients and also to produce something a bit original too.

The wonderful morels (Above - Morchella esculenta) which I think are the best edible fungi of all, will also be here soon if the weather and soil temperature allows on my patches.

If your interested in a foraging day where we may be able to focus on finding these wonderful edible fungi then please do get in touch.

Just one of the dishes below that celebrates the coming of spring in all its glory - Slow cooked duck egg yolk, morels and hedgerow greens, morel sauce.

Bass Fishing

Soon it will be time to chase these wonderful fish again.

I have a few new lures to test out from Lure Fishing for bass UK, these and some other new lures will be taken through their paces.

As a guide you kind of work with what you have done since day one. With some trialing out on the side when time allows. I would never let a guest experiment with something I don't think will work or I haven't put the hours in with myself. I think its important to test lures out thoroughly though and when I can, and if it works for me consistently then I will post it up on this new blog.

I don't start taking people out for the bass until Early May when things become a bit more consistent. And the water temperature starts to come good. I don't think its fair to take paying guests out before this time as I wouldn't feel I was doing them justice at all.

Theres some great times to be had in what is one of my favourite months for both bass fishing and foraging.

Catching and seeing these wonderful fish is always a pleasure but theres no feeling for me than seeing these fish swim back off into the sea again.

Thanks to my very good friend David Miller for letting me use the sand eel photograph above.

It won't be long until the sand eels are hatching in good numbers, I will be on the shoreline watching the bass smashing these mainstay of their broad diet. There are many great days for me to look forward to this year with my friend David miller at David Miller Art

Anyway a short blog post for now.

Please do get in touch with me for any enquiries for booking days out for any of the wonderful experiences I am offering here. Booking are now coming in daily and I do not want to leave anyone dissapointed.

All the very best and I hope 2018 is a great year for you all even if you cannot find the time to join me this year.

Theres a multi-course dinner with the foraging day out as well and the reviews have been unbelievable. Lots of hard work goes into each dish and its really starting to tell. With every guest I have seen coming to join me the feedback has been unreal.

Please do not hesitate to get it touch as there are already just under twenty people booked up for July for both experiences

already.

Coming very soon

If rooting around the Welsh countryside looking for wild edible isn't for you then I have some good news.

I will also be running pop up wild food evenings at various places around Wales in 2018.

More details of these events will be published here when the dates are set in stone.

You can get more of that will be coming up in 2018.

St Davids day 2018

I will be running a St Davids day foraging and food event around the very beginning of March (1st to the 5th). We do not celebrate St David and promote St Davids day enough here in Wales.

I may even do this as a three day or a five day event.

Again places will be limited and the food will be based on what is about that time of year.

I will be looking at the traditions of food at the time of St David, and will try and look at what the clergy of the day would of eaten during fasting times etc, I will of course take these ideas to another level.

Note* It wont just be leeks and water (now theres an idea! :)

A short post for now but I just wanted to make people are aware of whats coming up.

Please do stay posted.

Email - matt@fishingandforagingwales.co.uk

Telephone - 07515380169

]]>A New Website, A New Beginning]]>A new website, A new beginninghttps://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/single-post/2017/11/02/A-New-Website-A-New-Beginninghttps://www.fishingandforagingwales.co.uk/single-post/2017/11/02/A-New-Website-A-New-BeginningSat, 11 Nov 2017 14:57:18 +0000

A new website the end of another season but a new beginning!

So the end of the season for me has come. Its a funny time for me, the last few days have given me time to reflect on the season just passed.

Its always a reflective time for me when my season ends.

New things have been learned. New fungi patches have been discovered.

Above - Hedgehog fungi - Hydnum repandum.

Good sized bass have been caught in new areas. The most fish caught in one day was seventeen.

Theres still a long way to go, although the prospects are just astounding. Experiences are taken on board and I learn from them and quickly move on.

I will be here for years to come and I will continue to hit the peaks and I will continue go from strength to strength. At the end of the day I am a man of the outdoors, the knowledge I have is wonderful and it is not taken for granted.

I don't think I will ever get tired of getting people onto the fish especially when they are good sized ones.

I also don't think I will ever stop questioning and wondering what is actually going on out there, the quest for answers will forever continue.

Smaller parts of the puzzle come together with some more attention to detail. The wild Pembrokeshire coast is far from a simple place to fish. Some marks are so large they have to be sectioned into smaller bite sized pieces.

The foreshore and the storm beaches here are forever changing. Each season can be very different. You have to adapt and you to have a plan B, C and D.

Seeing people hooking up with their first bass is always great for me too.

Rowland above joined me for a five day session as did Chris below, with the weather conditions and seals turning up at marks we only really had three days out of the five for actual fishing. Such is the gamble on this coastline at this time of year.

You get your chances and you have to try and make the most with what you have to choose from in front of you.

Chris and Colin below have joined me on a few occasions this year, back in late June we had a wonderful time. Top banter and fun was had on each and every day. Thanks lads and see you next year.

People that come on these days out have similar interests, everyone has been massively supportive this year and everyone is returning for more adventures next year.

The places we go are alive with life, its not always about the fishing sometimes.

Seeing otters playing on the shoreline and following their footprints in the sand.

Watching the wading birds like the egrets and the red shanks, the murmurations of the starlings on a cloudy autumn day.

The calling of the curlews is one of the best sounds that you will ever experience.

The rod that I have worked so hard on has delivered there are only three of the Tulala 240's in the country and two belong to me the other one has now been sold. More will be on their way soon and next year I will be working on the 275 (9ft) version.

These rods will be available exclusively through me here on this website in my shop.

A rod that has been worked on for three years now, a rod built by me. Someone who is on the coast fishing for bass on almost a day to day basis. Rods purposely built for the conditions we face on U.K waters.

I also got some time to fish for myself at certain points. I have personally landed fish up to the eight pound mark. No double for me this year though which is a normal occurrence for me when I get time to fish hard. Alas the day to day running of the business has taken over.

I am really hoping to get out fishing for myself next year so I can continue to land more fish like these below on lures from the shore.

Foraging and food

The feedback on the food from guests has been as I would expect for all the work I put into it.

I cannot thank each and everyone of you enough for joining me and I will see you all again next year.

The words of encouragement have been duly taken and I will continue to strive to get better and better.

There is nobody cooking this style of food in the U.K at the moment where in that everything I use comes from extremely local sources.

Most of my dish creations have a meaning and a story, an interpretation of my take on the environment I work in.

Getting to where I am today has not been easy.

Dedication, commitment, sacrifice and determination have been the key recipe for me and anyone striving to do something truly unique.

Family and friends have been very supportive when things have been tough.

For those on the end of the phone I cannot thank you enough. I turned my back on the status quo five or six years ago now and it is the best thing I have ever done. I only wish I had made the decision ten years ago.